


Meet and Greet

by JustaDeadDove



Category: Original Work
Genre: Drowning, Gen, MerMay 2020, Near Death Experiences, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 07:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24347281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustaDeadDove/pseuds/JustaDeadDove
Summary: She had just wanted revenge, but Poseiden had always favored the violator over the victim, hadn't he?
Relationships: Zelda Buchanan/Abigail Parish
Kudos: 1





	Meet and Greet

Hands wrapped around her legs, around her dress. Clinging and tearing and dragging her down, down, down. Deeper and deeper into the dark and murky depths. Sand and clay and mud obscured her vision and she felt a laugh building up in her chest. Threatening to break out and burst the fragile bubble of life she was holding herself in. Of all the ways to go, after coming so close to freedom she craved, this was how she would meet Thanatos? After all her scheming and her attempts to fight free, the sea would get her in the end.

The hands gripped tighter and she fought off the terrified tears that pricked at her eyes. She had been promised immortality, but she was so young. Too young to live without air and now she would pay for the vengeance that had been fostered in her still heart. Nemesis did not smile upon her today, in fact she seemed to turn her back as the waves crashed higher and higher above her head. The ropes twisted tighter, their reaching fingers tangling her feet together. Her dress wrapped tighter and she couldn’t kick free and her lungs burned with a foreign fire.

She was dying, and that laugh gasped out of her as thick water flooded her lungs.

She had not wanted to die. She had run away from home to escape death, made a deal with a monster to escape death, had killed her betrothed to escape death. And now the ocean would be her tome. She would not even be sent with the coins to aid her travel with Charon. She wasn’t even sure where she would end up now. She did not know what god to pray to. She did not know if they were listening.

The water was getting darker and her legs were getting tired as the seaweed wrapped tighter. Each gasp was a burning lungful of salt water and the dark shapes of predators hungry for her flesh were circling now.

Hera had always meant to face death with open eyes and a vicious smile, but it was so much easier to just close her eyes. To let the water take her.

She hadn’t wanted to drown.

  
  
  


The light was bright as it played upon her eyelids. Coughing and sputtering she shot up, her chest aching and throat burning as salt water poured from between her lips. A strong hand struck her back hard. Laughter filled the air as Hera’s gaze cleared. She was on the beach beside Aretimis’ temple and a woman sat beside her. Long legs lounged in a white linen and golden curls tumbled back over bare shoulders. And the woman seemed to be delighting in her confusion and salt burned pain. 

“Don’t you know to run inland when the water begins to disappear, little thing?”

“I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the sea while running from guards.” Hera rasped, rubbing her throat as she looked at the woman. Her skin looked… flawless, and her teeth. Her teeth were as sharp as a shark’s when she smiled at Hera. 

“One should always pay attention to the sea. It’s the most likely to grab you, devour you. It sends its great waves up onto the shore to catch unwitting treasures like you.” The woman’s hand closed around Hera’s leg and she couldn’t help but notice her sharp nails that caught her dress. How strong her grasp was as she pushed against the bruises the seaweed had left on her legs. “You’re just lucky I was so close and recognized your owner’s smell on you.”

Hera’s hackles rose, her teeth flashing in their own challenging snarl. “I have no master.”

The woman only laughed her rich, spell-like laugh. “Oh, but don't you young one?” She moved her hold from her leg up to her arm and then pulled. It was with ease she pulled Hera to her feet. Then the woman began dragging her towards the temple. Ignoring Hera’s protests and the way her hands clawed at those strange hands, she seemed to hum ti herself as she moved between the pillars. “Abigaia darling, I found something of yours!”

Rounding the corner, the woman let out a small triumphant sound at the sight of an altar covered in crimson. Sitting upon it was a woman paler than the marble, her lips and chin stained red and a slender body draped unmoving upon her lap. Hera gasped, then flung herself forward, stumbling as she was released. “Abigaia! Abigaia she’s a beast, a siren! Get rid of her she’s-”

“You’re a vampire Hera. If you’re going to be afraid of every little thing that’s a monster in your legends I’ll have no time for you pet.” Her bored voice filled the temple as she stood. The body rolled off of her and fell with a sick splat to the floor. “Eat while I talk with Zephyra here.” The deep blue eyes flickered over the siren who was now cleaning her nails. “We have things to discuss that do not concern a child.” She waved a dismissive hand over Hera as she strolled passed her.

Hera glanced over her shoulder to see the two women draw close, Abigaia’s disinterested gaze turning into one as hard as stone and the other woman’s turn into laughter. But the smell of blood was overwhelming, and her meal from before the wave could not quench the thirst that came with nearly dying. She would ask for details later, though she knew she would not receive them. But why would a siren save a creature like her and not simply devour her whole?


End file.
